Latest news with #Photopea
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Billionaire Investor David Tepper Dumped Adobe and Acquired This Semiconductor Stock. Should You Follow?
If you haven't achieved a net worth north of $1 billion by wisely investing in stocks, there's probably a lot that you can learn from the handful of folks who have. One fund manager most investors could learn a lot from is David Tepper, the billionaire who manages the Appaloosa fund. It's delivered an average annual return of more than 28% since its inception in 1993. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Tepper closed an Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) position worth more than $100 million. Also in the fourth quarter, Appaloosa increased its stake in Lam Research (NASDAQ: LRCX) by 1.15 million shares. Tepper's track record speaks volumes about his ability to pick stocks that outperform, but even the best fund managers make decisions they later regret. Here's a closer look at recent results from these two companies to see if selling Adobe or acquiring Lam Research could be a smart move for your portfolio. Shares of the Creative Cloud subscription provider are down about 33% from the peak they set all the way back in 2021. The stock hasn't performed well, but its software business keeps growing. In its fiscal year that ended on Nov. 29, 2024, total revenue rose 11% year over year. Adobe's bottom line is rising more quickly than sales. Adjusted earnings rose 14.6% in fiscal 2024 to $18.42 per share. GAAP earnings that don't adjust for the $1 billion reverse termination fee Adobe incurred when abandoning its pursuit of Figma, rose just 4.6% to $12.36 per share. Adobe's main advantage is a strong network effect, not necessarily terrific software. Last October, Photopea, a web-based Photoshop competitor, announced it served users over 1 billion files over the previous 12-month period. Photopea was developed by one guy working alone and is free to use. Four years of Photoshop access will run you more than $1,000. There are plenty of less expensive alternatives to Adobe's most popular products, but completing projects with them can be a challenge. For example, the proprietary file type Adobe Illustrator employs is ubiquitous among professional illustrators. As a result, most print shops don't know what to do with an EPS file even though this file type is used by dozens of competing vector art applications. Adobe's heavy investment in generative artificial intelligence (AI) functions could make its products stickier and offset non-professional users who are no longer willing to pay for expensive, recurring subscriptions. With a strong network effect likely to keep subscribers on board for the foreseeable future, selling this stock now doesn't seem like the right move. Lam Research is a member of a tiny group of companies that produce advanced etch and deposition equipment used to manufacture semiconductors. Laying down billions of tiny transistors on a silicon wafer requires an incredible level of precision now that they're spaced just a few nanometers apart. Lam Research is in an even more enviable position than most of its peers because it specializes in processes that stack semiconductor components on top of each other. Lam's verticalization expertise allows it to produce equipment used to manufacture high bandwidth memory (HBM), which is an increasingly important component of AI processing. The market for HBM chips is expected to soar from $4 billion in 2023 to $130 billion by 2029. In 2024, Lam Research grew adjusted earnings by 23% to $3.36 per share, and investors can reasonably expect more gains in the years ahead. That's because it doesn't necessarily matter which memory chip manufacturer goes on to gain a leading share of the HBM memory chip space. An extremely limited number of etch and deposition equipment manufacturers with verticalization expertise means most of the winners, and losers will end up buying equipment from Lam Research. Lam Research's equipment sales could surge on the back of demand for AI, but the market hasn't seemed to notice yet. At recent prices, you can scoop up shares of this well-positioned picks-and-shovels business for just 21.9 times forward-looking earnings expectations. Following Tepper's lead in this case seems like a very smart move. Before you buy stock in Lam Research, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Lam Research wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $829,128!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 948% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 176% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list. Learn more » *Stock Advisor returns as of February 7, 2025 Cory Renauer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Adobe and Lam Research. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Billionaire Investor David Tepper Dumped Adobe and Acquired This Semiconductor Stock. Should You Follow? was originally published by The Motley Fool
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Yahoo
How to Enhance Your Photos Using AI
Have you ever felt like your photos don't accurately represent what you actually experienced? Maybe the colors aren't as vibrant as they were in real life, or maybe the background of a selfie looks off. While you may not have the photo editing skills (or the potentially enormous sum to afford a professional editor), Remini, an artificial intelligence photo enhancer, could be a solution. Founded in 2019 by Raz Wasserstein and Doron Oded, the AI-powered desktop and mobile software has enough themes and styles to help you enhance your photos. For its ease of use and accessibility features, the desktop version of Remini, which I used, makes it easy to try out its functions without adding another app to your phone. Remini currently has 102 million monthly users and 12 million monthly downloads, making it a competitor among other AI-powered companies, like Photopea and Fotor. The tool itself is pretty simple; while there are nine key features accessible on Remini (depending on membership level) they combine into three main actions: photo enhancement, color correction and video enhancement. Step 1: To access Remini Web, go to its home page and sign up for a free account through your Facebook, Google or Apple account. Once logged in, you'll have the option to upgrade to a paid Personal or Business membership. Both are available for $1 on a one-week trial (and $7 to $10 per week after). Step 2: Remini has a tutorial to help you learn to use it. I found the platform generally easy to use, but this provides a structure to help navigate its design. Step 3: Once the tutorial is complete, pick a couple of images to upload to test out its different types of photo enhancement. (Note: Bulk upload is only available through the Business membership.) I uploaded an already edited headshot, an unedited headshot and a digitized film photo that features double exposure, my personal happy mistake. Step 4: It takes up to 30 seconds for Remini's AI-powered software to complete the initial enhancement process. Once complete, you can edit your image as needed, including six "Beautify" options, three levels of background removal and eight types of color correction. On my headshots, I toggled through its different beautify features, but with the double-exposure photo, the color correction mode created the most drastic change. Step 5: Here's the catch: You can only download your enhanced photo with a Personal or Business membership, which is $1 for a one-week trial and $10 per week thereafter (although there are articles online that detail how to download enhanced photos for free through its mobile app). Whichever route you go, your completed, watermark-free photo can be downloaded as a JPEG, plus PNG and TIFF, with a Business plan. I appreciate the before-and-after toggle following the photo enhancements to note what changed. On my unedited headshot, the "after" photo had a smooth effect, but it wasn't until I zoomed in that I saw the many edits made. For example, whitening the white part of my strained eyes, removing stains between my teeth and filling in my somewhat large pores. Since Remini particularly focuses on photo enhancing, the learning curve isn't too steep for beginners, creative AI enthusiasts or those who consider themselves image historians. You can also take Your Remini Plan's onboarding survey to help it learn your editing style. (Although there's a paywall at the end.) Photopea and Fotor contain a more robust library of features, Remini's specific focus may serve a purpose. Remini provides AI-powered photo enhancements, versus a suite of different editing tools you may not need (or want) to use -- leading to unnecessary overwhelm and a steeper learning curve. Google Photos and iPhone's Photos app allow you to edit your photos on your phone (for free!), but there isn't necessarily a way to enhance the photos quickly and efficiently. For example, Google Photos allows you to place filters over your photos and has additional offerings like background tools and suggestions for the Android version of the app, but you're still left with toggling through adjustments to your liking. This takes up additional time and doesn't improve unwanted blemishes or markings. Remini solves this part of the editing process within seconds. Now, if you are a photo editor, Remini can serve as a tool to enhance your photo editing business. If you proceed with a business membership, you'll receive the same photo-enhancing software available on its free and personal plans, plus commercial usage and the ability to bulk upload. Since you have some control over the amount of editing the AI-powered software provides, edits can remain minimal without over-enhancing the image. If your needs fit into Remini's abilities, I'd recommend trying out its AI-enhanced photo restoration, enhancement, or improvements. I don't think paying $1 for a week-long trial is a loss to your time or wallet, but it would be nice to know what the free version of the Remini includes before initiating its multistep process. Whether accessing its website or downloading the app, there's ample opportunity to create a newly enhanced or altered photo for less than a dollar to start. I can't knock technology's integration into creativity. Remini was meant for its users to enjoy the process, although as intended, it goes by quickly.
WIRED
07-02-2025
- WIRED
Photopea Is a Free Photoshop Alternative That Runs in the Browser
When you need to edit photos, you don't have to download expensive or complicated software. Photopea is free to use, easy to grasp, and does most of what you need. Sometimes you need to quickly edit a photo but don't want to bother paying for Photoshop or installing an unfamiliar desktop image editor. Photopea is a free, ad-supported application that runs entirely in the web browser. It offers many of the same features as the marquee photo-editing applications but does not require you to download anything or pay for an expensive user license. Photoshop needs no introduction among photographers and other creative professionals. And there's a pretty great free alternative to Photoshop already: Gimp, an open-source photo editor that's very powerful. Why bother with Photopea in a world where that application exists? Well, for one thing, Photopea runs inside a browser tab, meaning you can use it on devices you'd rather not install software on. For example: if you're helping a family member organize their photos and need to quickly edit a couple of them, it's easier to open a website than it is to install an entire tool they're never going to use again. The same thing goes at work: you might not want to, or have permission to, install software on a work device, particularly if editing photos isn't normally part of your job. Chromebooks are another example. Photopea is perfect for all of them. Adding Files to Photopea To get starting using the app just head to that simple. You don't need to make an account to use it. Just drag any photo you want to edit from your file browser and drop it into the browser window. Any image format is supported, including RAW files. You can also upload PDF files, though when I tested those, the results were mixed. Just drag and drop your image files onto the workspace to get started. Courtesy of Justin Pot Photopea also, notably, supports Adobe's native file formats including .PSD (Photoshop), .AI (Illustrator) and .XD (XD) files alongside .FIG (Figma) files. This means you can edit files created in those applications. There's even support for importing .ATN files, which are automations you can create in Photoshop to adjust multiple image parameters with one click. Photopea supports saving any image as a PSD file and preserving the file's image layers, meaning you could in theory use it to collaborate with someone working in Photoshop. It can also export to common image filetypes like JPEG and PNG. It's worth noting that Photopea, despite running in your web browser, runs entirely on your device. This means you don't need to upload your photos to the internet in order to use it. It also means you can disconnect from the internet and continue editing—just don't close the tab or you'll lose your work. If you'd rather store files online, the web app supports saving files in Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive. Editing Files in Photopea Photopea, like Photoshop, would be hard to fully explain in a single article—there are just too many features to list here. I recommend checking out Photopea's documentation, which is quite thorough. To put it simply, most everything you can do in Photoshop you can do in Photopea. The tools won't always be identical, granted, but they come surprisingly close. And the user interface of Photopea very closely resembles that of Photoshop. I used Photoshop a lot back when I worked at a weekly newspaper, and everything in Photopea is exactly where I expected it to be. This means you can do things like adjust the levels or apply filters by using the menu bar. It also means the left side panel, full of icons for things like selecting tools, drawing, and adding text are right where you'd expect to find them. On the left side you will find the history and layer drawers. Basically, if you know your way around Photoshop, you're not going to have a hard time adjusting. And the features all work quite well. I'm not a Photoshop expert, and I'm sure a true expert will find many shortcomings. But for just about anyone who needs to do some photo editing or collaborate with somebody using Adobe's tools, Photopea is a capable replacement that can step in to serve in a pinch. It's a common saying among photographers: the best camera is the one you have with you. Photopea is the photo editing software that you always have with you, provided you have a web browser. The Downsides There are a few limitations to consider. For one thing if you close the tab where you have Photopea open, your work is basically gone. I wish there was a pop-up warning. The biggest drawback for me is the gigantic wall of ads taking up the right side of the screen. These ads change frequently, making for a visually distracting experience. Ad blockers don't help much; the big empty void next to your workspace remains and you're constantly seeing pop-ups asking you to turn off the ad blockers. The only way to get rid of the ads is to pay Photopea a $5 monthly subscription fee that also adds AI features and 5 GB of online storage. Whether that's worth the price is probably going to come down to how often you use the application. It's a great deal cheaper than Photoshop in any case; paid subscriptions for that app start at $23 per month.
